Utterly Meaningless

So I’d better start whipping up some bathroom passes on my home computer?

Weekly assessments seem like a minor inconvenience when compared to the opportunity to be the 3rd stringer long snapper on a high school football team.

The individual school districts have to abide by the governing organizations’ policies, such as the PIAA (Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association) or they can be disqualified from games. Our school district has always allowed homeschool particiation even before the new law and requires the student’s home education supervisor (parent) issue a note weekly saying that their student is “eligible”. Eligibility has to do with maintaining “passing grades” in at least 4 core courses. If the extra curricular is Band or Spanish Club, I imagine, the school district does not make any such demands, at least ours does not. Life in high school sports are not like a neighborhood pick-up game anymore.

If it’s just a self-attested piece of paper once a week, I guess I can grumble only because it’s so profoundly stupid. But if it goes beyond that …

It’ll go beyond that when opposing coach complains about the homeschooler point guard that just scored 40 points in a upset of his defending 4A basketball champions.

“It’ll go beyond that when opposing coach complains about the homeschooler point guard that just scored 40 points in a upset of his defending 4A basketball champions. ”

You can’t get past personal discrimination in any form of life. And the opposing coach will not have any ability to change another School District’s policy. BUT the law had provisions put into it that the access policies “SHALL ONLY APPLY TO PARTICIPATION IN ACTIVITIES AND SHALL NOT CONFLIC WITH ANY PROVISIONS OF THIS SECTION [home education law].” The law also made provisions that the homeschool student abide by “equivalent” regulations. So for those who choose to play, the new law only guarantees that all parties are brought to the negotiating table in fairness. It does not preclude human nature.

One article quoted a PA school district official’s concerns about how they’d verify a homeschooler’s daily attendance – not attendance at team practice but attendance at homeschool.

Re: “attendance”
Some of the governing organizations (e.g. PIAA) require the student be in “attendance” at school the day of a competition for fairness of both teams. You will find lots of idiots quoted (or misquoted) in newspapers but the important issues are what the school districts finally adapt as policies. Policies are usually written with various inputs; ex. athletic directors, homeschoolers, concerned ps parents, and then submitted for school board approval.